- Hey, everybody.
This is Roberto Blake of RobertoBlake.com,
helping you create something awesome today.
Today, I'm gonna actually help you
pick out your first DSLR camera.
If you're someone who's actually just going to be buying one
of these for the first time, it can feel really intimidating
and I'm gonna help you make the best decision I can for
how to buy a camera that can either do great photography,
great video, or both.
I'm gonna try and cover as much ground as I can
in a short amount of time, so that I can really give you
information that's gonna help with your buying decision.
You have to make a lot of hard choices here
and they can feel a little intimidating at first.
There's so much jargon and information out there
on the internet, and a lot of it just isn't practical
or doesn't utilize common sense that regular people
might be able to understand or interpret.
I'm gonna try and help you with that.
Even if you're familiar with cameras,
this could still be just a little much sometimes.
You have to decided whether or not you get a full frame
or a crop body camera, you have to choose between brands.
Do you get Nikon, do you get Canon, do you get Pentax,
or Olympus or one of the other brands?
If you want to do video, does the camera handle that?
If you only really are focused on photography, but you like
having video as an option, what do you do to get the
best shots that you possibly can in terms of the camera?
Let's start with some basics.
Budget, price, this is something that's super practical.
A lot of you might be on a fixed budget.
If you are, understand you can still get great shots
with a budget camera.
The videos that I produce here on the YouTube channel
are done with a Nikon D3200.
This is an older camera, and it is a crop-body sensor,
also called an APSC sensor.
It's not the newest, fanciest camera in the world,
but it more than gets the job done.
You can see that it does great with video
and it does great with audio.
It also takes some tremendous shots.
The shots come down a lot of times to what lenses you have.
I'll talk about that more later in this video,
and I will actually do a dedicated video
to buying your first camera lenses.
The reason I bring up the camera that I'm using is because
you could get the Nikon D3300, which is even better,
and more recent, for under $500 with a kit lens.
In fact, I believe you could get two lenses with it
for about $500, $550 from Amazon.
I'll have links to this stuff in the description below
for you.
You could also, if you prefer to get Canon,
you can get the Canon Rebel T5i.
I know a lot of YouTubers have actually been using
the T3i for years, so a lot of new video producers
who decide to buy a DSLR camera go with that,
but you get the T5i for almost the exact same price,
and it's a better, newer camera.
I think that a lot of the older YouTubers are just
still using the T3i because it's the camera they know
and it's the one that they're comfortable with.
That's okay, too.
If you're someone who's taking photography very seriously,
then a crop body sensor might not be for you.
If you're going to do portraits,
and you're gonna do weddings,
or you're gonna do high priced photography,
and you wanna charge the most that you can
for taking the best shots out there,
and you have a bit more money to invest,
then you should definitely consider getting a
full frame camera like the Canon 5D Mark III,
or the Nikon D810, or even the Nikon D610.
Those are great cameras and
they won't necessarily break the bank.
They will allow you to take professional shots.
If you're going to be shooting high end commercial work
with the greatest talent in the world,
you're probably not watching this video,
but if you aspire to do that one day,
that's when you would make the investment in something
like the new Nikon D5 that was just release at CS,
or rather that was just announced at CS,
or something like the Canon XD series.
These are those higher end cameras.
If all you're going to do is you're going to
shoot family photos, you're gonna go on vacation,
or you're gonna make YouTube videos,
or you're even going to shoot videos for you small business,
then you don't have to break the bank.
You could spend $500 and have the basics
and do very well with that,
or if you wanna spend $1000, you can get something
a little better that will be easier to use
or produce even better quality images
or have features that you need.
A primary example would be getting the camera
with a flip out screen and in Nikon,
they have the D5500.
This one's a little but more expensive,
it's the camera that I'm actually thinking of upgrading to
for this YouTube channel, because a flip out screen
could be very convenient.
A lot of the Canon models actually have this,
where as Nikon has a few less cameras
with that particular feature.
Sony actually has less cameras with that feature in terms
of the mirror-less cameras that compete with DSLR's.
That's something to really think about
is what features do you really need from a camera?
If you're going to be doing the most basic stuff,
then you don't necessarily need a flip out screen.
I've been getting fine with filming
these YouTube videos without one.
If you're gonna primarily be focused on photography,
a flip out screen might not mean anything to you at all.
A tilt screen might be good enough,
or you might actually prefer to use the viewfinder.
It's largely a matter of preference.
You have to get the camera that you're comfortable with.
In terms of what brand to pick, I often tell people
to get the brand that you trust
or that most of your friends are using.
The reason for this is you can borrow lenses,
you can borrow accessories,
you can ask for advice, you can practice on their cameras
and get comfortable with them before
you make a buying decision.
That could be very helpful.
Or, if there's an influence or somebody that you follow,
and you wanna get the exact same results as them,
you could buy the same gear that they have.
That's part of why I actually list out my gear
in videos like this so that people,
if they want to buy what I have,
they have the option to.
I'm not keeping that secret.
A lot of people like to hide what they're doing
or what they're using.
I like to make sure that people can be informed.
Buying a budget camera body means that you have a lot
more money to invest in glass, and glass is going to be what
really makes or breaks your image quality.
Now, a body is still important.
If you buy a body that is meant to shoot sports,
it's gonna be more expensive because it's gonna really help
with certain things that you need in those situations.
I'll probably have to do a dedicated video
about how to buy a camera for sports shooting.
You have to keep in mind that those photographers
are buying the higher end equipment for a reason.
If all you really wanna do is shoot
your kids at the playground
or shoot the family Christmas photos,
then you don't really need to go that far.
You can get something very basic like a Nikon D5200,
a Nikon D3300, something like that,
and you can buy a $200 lens, you can get either
the 35 millimeter if you wanna get more wide shots,
if you wanna get more close ups and portraiture,
you could get the 50 millimeter which is very flattering
when you take head shots,
or you could spend a little bit more money
and you can spend $500 and get a Sigma zoom lens,
which is an F 2.8, 17-50, and that's a
great starter lens for you.
But again, I'll cover more of that in another video.
You're first camera should really be suited to you.
If you're a smaller frame, smaller body person,
maybe a small body camera is the right decision
because it'll be lightweight and it'll be very comfortable
in your hands, especially if you're gonna
shoot all day on it.
If a bigger body feels more comfortable to you,
then great, maybe you wanna get something higher end
like the Nikon D610, or even the Nikon D7200.
These cameras might be more suited to you.
They can take a lot more wear and tear.
They're weather sealed, so if you're someone
who's gonna be shooting in harsh environments,
that might be the right type of camera for you.
The great thing about DSLR bodies and upgrading
to one of those instead of a point and shoot camera
is the fact that you can in fact change out these lenses.
Not to mention that when you're ready to upgrade to
something else, you can still sell this camera body
and you can get a lot of the value back for it,
or you could trade it in.
That's something to keep in mind.
These camera bodies last a long time.
You can go ahead and you can take up to 100,000
shots with most of these camera bodies,
and it will last.
For many of you, that is a long time.
For many of you, that might be the lifetime of you shooting.
Just kind of keep these things in mind, that you don't have
to break the bank, you don't have to get the most
expensive or newest camera on the market,
there are a lot of great options.
If you wanna buy a refurbished from Amazon,
that's actually a great way when you're just starting out
to learn a camera at a low investment
and get comfortable with it.
If you decid that you're gonna buy a DSLR
specifically to shoot video,
then the technical specs do matter a lot more to you.
With photography, it's not nearly as complicated
because it's really more about the glass
and getting a great shot with very few exceptions,
like when we talked about sports photography.
Being able to get a camera that handles low light situations
and has a great ISO range and high dynamic range
is going to be very important if you're shooting
that type of event or that type of footage.
If you're doing videos specifically, the things you need
to pay attention to is whether or not the camera
has the ability for you to put in a microphone jack.
That's why I'm getting great audio with this video quality.
That's very important.
The other thing is to make sure that it can shoot
the way you need it to shoot.
If you need 4K video, that's important to figure out
very early on.
You might actually need that feature for something
that you're trying to do.
If you're not worried about that,
most of these cameras shoot 1080p,
which is full HD video, so you'll be just fine.
The megapixels won't matter if you're shooting video.
The important thing for that is just to make sure that
the camera suits your needs in terms of its compatibility,
its accessories, and its core capabilities.
If you need to be able to shoot action stuff,
you need to make sure that it can shoot at
60 frames a second for action style video in 1080p,
if that's what you wanna do.
If you wanna make sure you're shooting full HD video,
and then you can have slow-mo shots, or fast motion,
then that could be important to you,
especially if you're a indie filmmaker .
Just look for little things like that when you're investing
in a camera specifically for video.
Those are my thoughts on buying a DSLR camera for beginners.
I hope this helped you make an informed decision
for your first time camera.
I have recommendations for great first time DSLR
camera buyers in the description below.
Those are Amazon links.
They help me out, and they help you
since you got an informed piece of buying information
completely free.
If you still have questions and are trying to
make up your mind about what to buy
as a first time DSLR shooter,
go ahead and let me know in the comments section.
I'll try and answer as many of your questions as I can.
Anyway, like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome content on the channel.
As always, you guys, thanks so very much for watching
and don't forget, create something awesome today.